¹⁸And Arpachshad begat Shelah, and Shelah begat Eber.
18. Eber] The Hebrew word usually means “the land beyond” and may have originated as a personification of the population beyond the Euphrates. It is further possible that Eber is an eponym, not merely of the Hebrews, but of the Habiri, a much wider stock of Semitic nomads, of whom the Hebrews formed an element, and who overran and harassed the settled peoples of Palestine in the fifteenth century B.C.
¹⁹And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.
19. two sons] one (Peleg) representing, roughly speaking, the northern or Mesopotamian Semites; the other (Joktan), the south Arabian tribes.
Peleg] see below on verse 25.
²⁰And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah; ²¹and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah; ²²and Ebal[¹], and Abimael, and Sheba; ²³and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
[¹] In Genesis x. 28, Obal.
20. Joktan begat Almodad] All the names of the sons of Joktan here given, so far as they have been identified, represent peoples situated in south Arabia or on the west coast of the Red Sea lying over against south Arabia. The only familiar name is that of the unidentified Ophir, which possibly but not certainly may be the “El Dorado” to which Solomon sent his fleet for gold.
24–27.
The Descent of Abraham from Shem.
These verses are compressed within the smallest limits from Genesis xi. 10–26. For another example of this extreme abbreviation compare verses 1–4 (= Genesis v. 3–32).